According to statistic data of Frost and Sullivan business consulting firm in Year 2000, America, Western Europe, and Asia hold almost 70 percent of global medical device market, wherein Asia holds about 17 percent of global medical device market. In the mean time, the report produced by Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs, R.O.C., indicates that the growth rate of yield of global medical device from 1992 to 2002 year is 14.83%. Moreover, the growth rate of Taiwanese medical care production value is even up to 18.5%. From the facts that Taiwanese has about one half the yearly income of American while Taiwan only has one-tenth the population of America and the production value of American remote home care market is USD 40 to 70 billion, The production value of Taiwanese remote home care market is estimated to be USD 2 to 3.5 billion per year. Accordingly, the medical industry using wireless communication technology will substantially affect the future economy of Taiwan. It is expected that the developed plaster-type wireless transmission/reception module and key components thereof can assist the domestic wireless and biomedical manufacturers in mastering the business opportunity and equipping with favorable conditions and leading role for contending with overseas manufacturers.
In the meantime, according to the statistic, the marketing scale of the global medical device in the Year 2005 is estimated to be USD 192 billion with an average growth rate of 5%. The US Department of Commerce also estimates that ten newly risen markets including The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, The Chinese Economic Area (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong), South Korea, India, South Africa, Poland, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina will be formed in the year 2010. The amount of the medical devices imported by these ten newly risen markets will be multiplied, and the growth rate of the medical care expense of these markets will be two or three times over the developed countries. Asia area and Eastern Europe among them will have the rapidest growth rate. Regarding the domestic market of Taiwan, the medical care expense is also raising continually since Taiwanese had gradually pay more attention to the health and medical care and the Government sets the National Health Insurance Program into action. The market values of Taiwan in the years 1998 and 2000 are NTD 16.921 and 22.3 billion, respectively, and is estimated to be NTD 43 billion in the year 2005 with an average growth rate of 13.9%.
In order to enable the people with chronic disease and/or the people who require media to be able to move freely with the application preventive medicine for reducing disease and disability, the core technologies of information and communication industries are utilized to broaden the scope of the cared objects and meet the need of personalized long-term care via the borderless network such that the number of hospital visit can be reduced, and the probability of having nosocomial infection is also reduced. Accordingly, the lives of the aged persons and the person who require care become more plentiful. In order to achieve the purpose of remote home care, the real-time wireless monitoring module using the network will be the most human solution. In the mean time, with the solid foundation of wireless-related industries in Taiwan and the characteristic of short developing time required for developing the new electric medical device, it is the best time for developing the remote home care module and device. The product of the present invention is disclosed in accordance with this trend.
A physiological plaster having the wireless monitoring function is disclosed in a patent WO03065926 (also US Pat. Appl. No. 20050096513), entitled “Wearable Biomonitor with Flexible Thinned Integrated Circuit”. Referring to FIG. 1, which is a block diagram of a circuitry integrated onto a thinned silicon substrate according to US Pat. Appl. No. 20050096513, the circuitry comprises a microprocessor 11, a ROM 12 for storing a program to be implemented, a RAM 13 for storing of data, and a transmitter or transceiver 14 for transmitting data by RF signals to a remote receiver. The circuitry also includes the electrodes 15 for front end analog data collection. The electrodes 15 are connected to an analog/digital converter 16 to convert the analog signals to digital signals to be processed in the microprocessor 11. Moreover, a battery 17 supplies power to the elements on the circuitry. In this cited patent, the plaster module is a single-sided plaster module. In other words, the sensor and the electronic device are mounted on the same side of the physiological plaster, which will cause the plaster to have the following drawbacks: (1) the area of the physiological plaster cannot be reduced; (2) the wear is less comfortable because of perspired sweat from the body; (3) the electronic device cannot be properly protected; and (4) EMI shielding is not available so that the signal transmitted from the physiological plaster may be easily interfered. Moreover, FIG. 2 shows a method for producing via connections in a flexible printed circuit according to US Pat. Appl. No. 20050217895. In FIG. 2, a thin, flexible, non-conductive substrate 20 is fashioned with a set or array of tiny holes 22 in the location where a first conductive line 24 and a second conductive line 28 are to overlap on opposing sides of substrate 20 and make an electrical connection, or in the location where the substrate 20 is subject to mechanical stress and anchoring of the conductive line is needed. Moreover, a conductive material such as a conductive paint 26 is applied to a first side of the substrate 20 to form the first conductive line 24. However, in this cited patent, the conductive lines 24 and 28 are formed by electroplating or chemical deposition to form metal layers on the polymer substrate and are then connected by the conductive paint 26. This requires complicated manufacturing processing.
Therefore, there is demand in providing using at least a pair of flexible wing circuit boards having radio frequency (RF) components being disposed thereon separated from a two-sided flexible main circuit board while being discretely coupled to the two-sided flexible main circuit board through a pair of pads attached to the two-sided flexible main circuit board so as to achieve compactness, module expansion and EMI shielding.